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The chair of Suicide Prevention Australia and the Auckland District Māori Council says Māori are sick of turning up for a karakia and cup of tea and then being told to leave the table.

Matthew Tukaki says that’s his immediate response to He Ara Oranga, the report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction.

He says there was a compete disregard of the need for Māori co-design of mental health and suicide prevention initiatives, and all the power remains in the hands of the Health Ministry.

What was needed was an investigation into the failure of the health system for Māori.

"The highest suicide rate per head of population in the world is our people. The largest number of people who are filtering through the mental health system per head of population are our people. The highest number of people who are facing everything from addiction to P and alcoholism and all the rest, they're our people so why in god's green earth were our stories and our narratives as a first nations people overwhelmed by everybody else," Mr Tukaki says.

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